Nailsea 5 Avon 49

Avon who finished third last season started this years campaign away against newly promoted . Having won the toss they elected to play up the slope and against the strong wind.

With the conditions against them Avon looked to control the ball wherever possible which they did to good effect as they launched a series of tight drives. This tactic led to the first try after 10 mins when centre DES Bowden wriggled  free up the left hand touchline to score it the corner.

Nailsea who looked to play open attacking rugby throughout the game had there best period of the game about half way through the first half and took advantage of Avon having a man in the sin bin to stretch them across the park to score an excellent unconverted try in the corner. Unfortunately for Nailsea although they battled bravely throughout the game that was the last time they troubled the scoreboard. Avon had the edge in most departments and by half time had added a second try from Bowden and one from scrum half Ollie Flight. Sam Rowlands on his first game since his return from Richmond add the 2 conversion and a pen to make the half time score 5 22

Nailsea worked hard up the slope in the second half and Avon tried to force the game too much  at times and came unstuck on occasions against an organised Nailsea defence. In the end Avon had just a little bit to much pace and power and run in four more second half tries from Dixon, flight, Hurd and a length of the field score from fly half Rowland who looked more settled in the 10 role as the game progressed  Rowland also added a penalty and two more conversions to make the final score 5 49.

The Avon players were full of praise for the newly promoted Nailsea team and their attacking style of Rugby. Next week sees Avon travel to the other promoted side when they Play Weston.